Victories taste sweet. Victories at the home of bitter rivals, even sweeter.

But as Chelsea left the Emirates on Saturday, more than a few Blues fans were starting to remember what the taste of champagne is like.

Teams that are top of the league after six games, even those that are unbeaten, are not stick-ons to lift the crown.

Especially, it must be said, when those teams are themselves in a state of flux, when their rivals are stumbling and tripping, when there is far too far to go to start making bold predictions.

But as Roberto Di Matteo sent out a team which did not include Frank Lampard to beat Arsenal, it sure looked like the shape of Chelsea things to come.

Lampard, even at 34, remains a cornerstone of the Chelsea dressing room. The most nerveless from the 12-yard spot. A man still capable of 15 goals, maybe even more, from midfield. A player who over the past six months has demonstrated a previously hidden capacity for positional renewal.

But while Lampard will probably play in Copenhagen on Tuesday, he is no longer an automatic starter, no longer guaranteed even to play IN every game.

At The Emirates, behind that impressively-interchanging line of three, which saw Oscar, Juan Mata and Eden Hazard - who has more of a touch of the young Joe Cole about him with every game I see - Di Matteo could have stuck with Lampard alongside John Obi Mikel.

After all, that was the double pivot whose discipline and determination proved crucial on the greatest night in the club's history in Munich in May.

For those who remember the way Ramires floundered in the same spot - albeit then alongside Raul Meireles - in Naples on a night that helped seal Andre Villas Boas' fate, it represented a gamble.

Of course, given that Di Matteo appears set on fielding that trio in behind Fernando Torres - whose first half movement was excellent but then did lose his confidence on the ball after the break - it is also the only realistic way of show-horning the Brazilian into the side.

Nevertheless, it was a risk. Ramires is a runner, not a passer. If Chelsea did not have enough of the ball, he could have been exposed. Indeed, as Arsenal cranked it up late-on, some might have suggested he was.

But Ramires was the link that Chelsea required, the oil that enabled the engine to work, his effervescence crucial, too, to the match-winning moment, as he drove forward to spark the counter - credit must be paid to referee Martin Atkinson for playing the advantage when the Brazilian was fouled by Mikel Arteta - which brought Mata's decisive free-kick.

Di Matteo explained, in prosaic terms: "We have different personnel this season and I put him in there. He plays there for Brazil.

"I'm happy with my squad. I said that before the season started and it's being confirmed. They're intelligent players and we're trying to integrate them into our system.

It takes time. We haven't been together long. Whenever you put a team together it takes time for them to understand the system and each other."

The Italian talked of his players having "responsibilities", insisting there is still more to come - and that more is demanded.

But you can make those requests when a team is playing with confidence, starting to play the type of football the owner wants.

Di Matteo's heritage meant a rueful smile when asked if he would prefer a team which wins in style - which is definitely how Roman Abramovioch would have it - to one that eked out victories.

"Good question," he replied, before a pause that seemed to last for eons. "Probably 1-0....."

Not even probably, but there is no question that Chelsea are more fluid and dynamic, while demonstrating on Saturday they have lost none of their stoic sense of resistance.

Petr Cech, as ever so alert and concentrated, conceded: "Last year, we were building a new team. We tried to play in a completely different way. And, in this moment, if you don't have the results, there is more pressure, you don't have time to relax.

"But if you start the season well, it gives you the time. It feels completely different.

"We want to go step by step, game by game, into the right direction, winning games. But Arsenal was a game where everybody said, 'Okay, this is a real test of how they are doing', and we did well - so it's pleasing."

More than that, although Di Matteo accepts that, no matter how well Chelsea play, they will never be given as much credit as other, arguably more aesthetically pleasing sides.

Di Matteo added: "When you're a winning team you're never loved. Teams that win trophies have never been loved in the history of football. It's as easy as that. Barcelona is great, yeah but they're a unique model that nobody has been able to replicate in the world, so far."

For a manager expected to deliver "Barcelona in blue shirts", it is, still, an impressive start.

Why JT has every right to use the system to his advantage

Banned on the run: Terry can use the appeal system to his advantage (Image: Richard Heathcote)

Always a hero for the Chelsea fans. Always a villain for everybody else.

The verdict of the FA's Independent Regulatory Commission, finding that John Terry had racially abused Anton Ferdinand at Loftus Road last October, will have changed nobody's view of the Chelsea captain.

But while Terry seems set on exhausting the appeals process - that may change when the full written reasons for the verdict and sentence are received this week - the reality is that the centre-half has a decision to make.

That Terry's appearance against Arsenal brought questions was utterly ridiculous. Luis Suarez played against both Wigan and Blackburn - and would have played against Newcastle - last December, after receiving his suspension.

It seems inevitable, now, that Terry will serve a four-match ban. The appeal panel is unlikely to overturn the original commission.

Terry has 14 days from receiving those reasons to decide on an appeal but the FA will be under pressure to ensure any further hearing is virtually instantaneous.

Which means, in reality, that Terry has to decide: does the four matches include the visit to Spurs and home game with Manchester United this month or November's games with Liverpool and Manchester City?

I suspect the latter. Terry has every right to use the process as he sees fit. If that upsets people, it will be water off a duck's back.